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Brewery Update - October 2015 and looking ahead

Submitted by David on Mon, 26/10/2015 - 07:08

It's getting crazy-busy this week and there's no sign of it letting up as we head into November. In between a full week at the "day job" this week is made up of deliveries, festivals and events - today (Monday) our beers are heading off to Birmingham Beer and Cider Festival, the Anchor in Digbeth, and the first couple of kegs will be dropped off at Brewdog Birmingham for the tap takeover there in a few weeks. During the rest of the week the usual Crewe outlets will be getting kegs, casks and bottles and a cask of East Indiaman, our British-Hopped IPA will be headed to the fabulous Redwillow bar in Macclesfield.

Birmingham Beer and Cider Festival opens its doors on Wednesday and there will be casks of Jahazi and Turuma making an appearance, the latter being the first chance anyone (me included - though samples from the fermenter were promising!) will have had to taste the finished product. Then the next day battle commences as the Bridge St Ale House in Newcastle-under-Lyme plays host to both Otherton and Offbeat in what is perhaps the brewing world's biggest ever domestic! Turuma and East Indiaman are lined up against Stoatcake Stout and Disfunctional Functional IPA, personally I'm hoping for a score draw to keep the peace...

Small is often beautiful, and that definitely applies when it comes to the Independent Salford Beer Festival. A worthy cause with a stunning beer list, and one which we're proud to be a part of - the honours here go to Turuma again, so I'm really hoping this one lives up to its initial promise! I'll be along on the Friday night (quality control, naturally!), it's ticket only and tickets are running out fast for most sessions so get hold of them while you still can!

It doesn't stop there - as well as Firsty Friday on 6th November where there should be at least one of our beers lining up on Offbeat's bar, we have coming up on 19th November a hugely exciting Tap Takeover / Meet The Brewer at Brewdog Birmingham. We'll have six beers there (our 5 most recent brews, plus this summer's collaboration with Offbeat). The only potential problem? Well the sixth one has yet to be brewed, but there's a space in the diary and it's just a case of working out how to get it down to Birmingham in time! It'll be a limited-edition reappearance of the hoppy golden ale Kinnear, first brewed earlier this year, thanks to a large bottle order meaning it is the first of our beers to make a repeat appearance since we started brewing in Crewe at the end of 2014. There'll also be Jahazi, Pinta, Turuma and East Indiaman on the taps, the first time so many Otherton beers have been in the same place at once, and the Offbeat collaboration Tripellette Saison completing the lineup.

Next month also sees Otherton reaching further afield than ever before as two of our casks are headed all the way out to a festival in Boston. Getting to Boston in Lincolnshire would be far enough to set a new record for us, but we've gone further than that! East Indiaman and Jahazi have both landed in the USA and should be appearing at Nerax North in a few weeks' time.

That's all going to keep us busy for the next few weeks at least, before the manic rush of Christmas is upon us. In December there'll be a chance to buy bottles for gifts or to treat yourself, while enjoying a beer or two from the bar and browsing the other stalls at the Offbeat Christmas Fayre where we'll have a little stall of our own, and of course there are two Firsty Friday open nights that month (the regular first Friday of the month, and the Crazy Christmas drinks on the third Friday). There are some new beers in store for the end of the year / early 2016, including a big-hitting Imperial IPA hopmonster that's being planned for a rather special birthday party, and hopefully early next year will see the start of some adventurous beery experiments in our new secret hideaway back across the county border in Staffordshire. All I'll say for now is that things can only get Bretter... ;)